Overrated and overhyped

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jason's machete, Freddy's glove, Michael's butcher knife, Leatherface's chainsaw...why not a killer with a javelin? They're so practical! This movie is so dead-serious and yet feels like a parody. A soft-core porn parody. And it's pretty hilarious, though I seriously doubt anyone involved meant it to be that way.My favorite example of "comedy" is two long shots in two separate locker rooms. The males are running around in whitey-tighties, including showering in them and then the film ventures into the female locker room where all the girls are completely nude, front, back and in almost every shot. Sure, I know I'm not the demographic for this film, but with careful editing, you could've given the illusion of the males naked without showing anything. It was just excuse #91 of showing fully naked chicks. I digress, I just finished this and the ending had the obligatory killer explaining his/her motives to the final girl...and I still don't know why the killer did all that killing. But, at least it's hilarious whenever the killer's onscreen: we just see this shadow of the killer with the javelin posed to be thrown at the victims and some crazy score. It's fantastic cheese.But...not as humorous as when they show the javelin travel through the air at the students. I imagine those scenes must be seen by someone high. Most...laughs...ever.Basically, there's an Olympic training academy run by four red herrings and students are getting, ah-hem, picked off one at a time. Oh, and they're being legally prescribed steroids because 1980s. Not sure if that's relevant because I still don't know the motives of JK, or Javelin Killer. And no, it's seriously not worth my time to go back and rewatch the ending. I really don't care that much. The movie was extremely hard to watch anyways: the budget was so low, they couldn't afford the electricity to keep the lights on for more than half the film.I award this movie one extra star for the unintentional comedy and I could see the actors, despite their terrible portrayals and dialogue, really trying. They did put their heart into it. But, more so for the downright, laugh-out-loud scenes. ***Final thoughts: I don't recall how exactly I learned of this movie - it was just a few days ago I first ever heard of this 1984 slasher film. But, what made me want to see it was the back cover of the VHS which read: "...Far too many people at the academy have motives. Dr. Jordan with his illegal use of drugs in training. Overly-demanding Coach Webber. Lesbian Coach Drew. Therapist Diane Paine, a maternal figure who takes her work into the bedroom..."Wait. Hold up, 1984. You are seriously lumping in a lesbian into that suspect bunch? And with nothing attached, just "Lesbian Coach Drew"? It's stated that one of the actresses who played a lesbian character took a filming break along with everyone else and came back to the shoot changed into a Born Again Christian and refused to kiss another woman, even for the sake of acting. Huh. Maybe we should've changed "Lesbian..." to "A Born Again Christian student" as a suspect. To me, that's just as offensive.

With the British media ramming the London Olympics down our throats in every conceivable way possible, I thought I'd escape the onslaught by watching Fatal Games, an eighties slasher flick where a hooded killer is impaling Olympic wannabes with a javelin. There's an immediate whiff of vintage cheddar about this film as we see the athletes doing their routines to an eighties theme tune that goes "Winning isn't everything, winning is the only thing" and I don't know about you, but I take great comfort from a slasher film when it includes a nice tune or two. We're introduced to our seven athletes/victims and assorted red herrings/possible killer. Fatal Games isn't full of imaginative kills. When we get done with all the crap banter and relationships and what not, the killer dispatches his victim with a javelin, and proceeds to do so throughout the film. He also hides the bodies, so there's plenty of head scratching 'where's such and such?' and stalking around the school. However, there's plenty of imagination injected into the stalking itself, as the killer's shadow is projected onto walls, or the killer is lit from the back, which livens things up a bit.The main 'livening things up' aspect of Fatal Games is the copious nudity shown through the first half of the film. Communal showers, shared saunas, massages, the whole lot is thrown out there to make sure you've got nothing to worry about. It keeps things going while the cast gets whittled down. Apart from that, it is your standard slasher stuff, with someone finding the bodies stashed away somewhere, to the final stalking of the remaining female around the school, etc etc. For an athletics-based slasher film, it's okay. Very similar to Graduation Day (which is better), but nowhere near the level of lunacy that is Pieces (which also had a swimming pool murder and a locker room murder).

Fatal Games is a pretty standard slasher that held my attention throughout and didn't get boring. It's nothing spectacular or unique, but it's quite fun and also gives a nice insight into the life of an athlete. There are plenty of slasher clichés present such as plenty of T&A. There is a moment at the beginning that made me laugh out loud: the athletes are all joking around and throwing food. They throw a sausage at a girl and it lands on top of her skirt. The deaths are OK, but nothing particularly gory. There is one death that looks surprisingly realistic. You are also kept guessing as to who the killer is throughout - I didn't guess and I'm usually good at figuring these things out. When the killer is revealed we get a nice little twist, but I won't spoil it for you. Watch this if you're a fan of slashers - it's not the best, but it's worth a look. Also recommended if you like this is a similarly themed slasher film called Aerobicide.

I saw this one at the Bruxelles film festival (memories, memories.) and the finale had everybody laughing out loud. But. the rest is just boring slasher stuff without anything that makes a good movie. Good if you want some noise in the background and raises your eyes when you hear a scream. Otherwise, skip it.